Extras: "Making of Shooters" featurette, Deleted Scenes, Director's
Commentary
Director:
Dan Reed
(The Bubble, The Cape of Fear, The Fame Game, The Partners, Shooters, The Unlikely Lads, The Valley, The Zone)
Producer:
Dan Reed
Screenplay:
Dan Reed
Original Score:
John Murphy and Daniel L. Griffiths
Cast:
Big John: John Wayland
Ricky: Ricky Rowe
Dezzy: Dezzy Baylis
Scully: Christopher Scully
Franny: Franny Bennett
Stephen: Stephen Condon
Shakira: Shakira Jones
Big John's ex: Cheryl Varley
Paul: Paul Attah
Shooters
is a semi-improvised film shot in Liverpool by experimental director Dan
Reed with a cast, none of whom had ever acted before, in a 70-minute
drama, peppered with strong language and euphemisms befitting the local area,
about bouncer Big John (John Wayland) who gets in too deep when a
visit paid to a rival gang-member goes wrong and he's linked to the man's
death.
What follows is the interaction between John, his friends, particularly
Ricky (Ricky Rowe) and Dezzy (Dezzy Baylis), his ex (Cheryl
Varley), his daughter Shakira (Shakira Jones) and his go-fer
Stephen (Stephen Condon) who acts as the Liverpudlian equivalent of
Billy Mitchell.
However, while I'd read good things about this film and really wanted to like
it a lot, I found it just got too bogged down in itself and the language
within even though the inside of the DVD case explains what all the unfamiliar
words are when translated into words the rest of us use. Thus, the film
started to drag and I began to care less and less about what happened to the
characters as the film drew to its eventually climax and those up to no good
found out what happens when you go pissing in someone else's pool and you're
fresh out of chlorine.
"Don't you dare call me Billy Mitchell again!"
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and is anamorphic
and looks very good indeed, reflecting the tense atmosphere. The print is
clean and lacks any noticeable glitches.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is mainly used for dialogue and the
occasional burst of gunfire - which sounds a bit simplified, but what I did
like particularly was the memorable and haunting score played at the beginning
and the end, as well as being dropped in during the film from time to time.
The composer deserves an award for that one.
The extras on the disc consist of a "Making of Shooters" featurette,
running for 18 minutes and containing chat with the director and many of the
cast members about the intention for this to start as a documentary but that
it turned into the film it became.
The Deleted Scenes run for approximately 12 minutes, are not anamorphic
but contain an optional director's commentary. Finally, there's also a
feature-length Director's Commentary.
There's only 12 chapters to the disc but it's not a long film so that's not
a problem, there are subtitles in four languages - English, French, Spanish
and German - and the menus contain movie clips in stilted black-and-white along
with the aforementioned excellent musical score.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
